Famous Affinities of History — Complete eBook

In the first place, it is mere fiction that represents
Maria Antoinette as having been physically beautiful.
The painters and engravers have so idealized her face
as in most cases to have produced a purely imaginary
portrait.

She was born in Vienna, in 1755, the daughter of the
Emperor Francis and of that warrior-queen, Maria Theresa.
She was a very German-looking child. Lady Jackson
describes her as having a long, thin face, small,
pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with the heavy
Hapsburg lip, and with a somewhat misshapen form, so
that for years she had to be bandaged tightly to give
her a more natural figure.

At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to
the French throne, she was a dumpy, mean-looking little
creature, with no distinction whatever, and with only
her bright golden hair to make amends for her many
blemishes. At fifteen she was married and joined
the Dauphin in French territory.

We must recall for a moment the conditions which prevailed
in France. King Louis XV. was nearing his end.
He was a man of the most shameless life; yet he had
concealed or gilded his infamies by an external dignity
and magnificence which, were very pleasing to his
people. The French, liked to think that their
king was the most splendid monarch and the greatest
gentleman in Europe. The courtiers about him
might be vile beneath the surface, yet they were compelled
to deport themselves with the form and the etiquette
that had become traditional in France. They might
be panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political
offices; yet they must none the less have wit and
grace and outward nobility of manner.

There was also a tradition regarding the French queen.
However loose in character the other women of the
court might be, she alone, like Caesar’s wife,
must remain above suspicion. She must be purer
than the pure. No breath, of scandal must reach
her or be directed against her.

In this way the French court, even under so dissolute
a monarch as Louis XV., maintained its hold upon the
loyalty of the people. Crowds came every morning
to view the king in his bed before he arose; the same
crowds watched him as he was dressed by the gentlemen
of the bedchamber, and as he breakfasted and went
through all the functions which are usually private.
The King of France must be a great actor. He
must appear to his people as in reality a king-stately,
dignified, and beyond all other human beings in his
remarkable presence.

When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the
French court King Louis XV. kept up in the case the
same semblance of austerity. He forbade these
children to have their sleeping-apartments together.
He tried to teach them that if they were to govern
as well as to reign they must conform to the rigid
etiquette of Paris and Versailles.

It proved a difficult task, however. The little
German princess had no natural dignity, though she
came from a court where the very strictest imperial
discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette found
that she could have her own way in many things, and
she chose to enjoy life without regard to ceremony.
Her escapades at first would have been thought mild
enough had she not been a “daughter of France”;
but they served to shock the old French king, and
likewise, perhaps even more, her own imperial mother,
Maria Theresa.